How effective are Ebony Alerts in California since they started? What advocates, law enforcement say

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Since becoming law in January, no Ebony Alerts have been issued in Sacramento County. However, there have been multiple missing person cases involving minorities. “We’ve been very fortunate that we have not had to issue one. We haven’t had any child rise to that level. There’s that level of scrutiny, because of the seriousness of the circumstances, and we hope to never have to issue one,” said Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.But community advocates say they’ve assisted multiple families of missing minorities within that same time frame.”That’s crazy. We’re talking about there’s a law in place that says this is for missing Black girls. You can argue with me about a runaway or whatever, but two and a half months, she’s missing,” said Berry Accius, community advocate and founder of The Voice of the Youth.For two months Accius has worked to get an Ebony Alert for 14-year-old Kamara Green, who has been missing since May 14. He said Green’s mother is frustrated and searching for answers.”Hoping her daughter’s safe every day and wishing that this was an Ebony Alert,” Accius said. “When I sent her the criteria, she almost broke down on the phone and said ‘This is the level of importance my baby is, some paperwork that tells me that she doesn’t meet the criteria’.”The author of the law, Sen. Steven Bradford, said the goal of Ebony Alerts is to bring missing Black kids back home.”The congressional Black caucus study, a two-year study that showed 53% of African-American kids were identified as juvenile prostitutes. And as we all know, kids cannot be prostitutes. This is a way of returning these kids home safely, as well as these young adults, and bringing attention when they do come up missing,” said Bradford. There’s a list of requirements for an Ebony Alert but according to Bradford, a person must only meet the age criteria and one other item on the list.1. The missing person is between 12 to 25 years of age.2. The missing person suffers from a mental or physical disability. 3. The person is missing under circumstances that indicate any of the following:(A) The missing person’s physical safety may be endangered.(B) The missing person may be subject to trafficking.4. The law enforcement agency determines that the person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.5. The law enforcement agency believes that the person is in danger because of age, health, mental or physical disability, or environment or weather conditions, that the person is in the company of a potentially dangerous person, or that there are other factors indicating that the person may be in peril.6. The investigating law enforcement agency has utilized available local resources.7. There is information available that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the missing person. That criteria determination is made by the person reporting them missing. Law enforcement then passes it on to the California Highway Patrol, which is required to issue that alert.”If the local agency who got their report was not forwarded on to the CHP and they clearly meet that criteria, we would definitely feel that is a breakdown in the system, and that’s not how it should be operated,” Bradford said. Twenty-eight Ebony Alerts have been issued statewide since January 2024.The majority of those were in Southern California.Bradford said 14 people have been brought back home as a result of the alerts.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter

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